We apologize for the delay in posting. The internet has not been working in the apartment for several weeks and we had to make up some days at the Nalgonda school this past weekend and early this week. Between last Saturday and this past Tuesday, we spent 24 hours on a bus to and from Nalgonda and 8 hours in the classroom with the Nalgonda boys. We were able to complete filming for the boys’ second video on disease and were also able to build our tolerance for the incessant horn use of the bus drivers as well as their habit of swerving into oncoming traffic at high speeds.

For their second video, the Nalgonda boys are reporting on a variety of diseases that affect different areas of India. They are talking about malaria, flourisis, mouth and lung cancer among other diseases and health issues. The boys are presenting information themselves at different locations around their school and are interviewing local residents of the community to attempt to understand the general health situation of the area as well as the general understanding the population has of disease and health care. This second video, along with the boys’ first video, should be up on the blog before the end of December. We’re finding that the manic energy of the boys at Nalgonda is both a blessing and a curse. It’s very enjoyable to see how enthusiastic the boys can get when discussing topics from disease to religion, cricket and the environment. And they are often very intent and enthusiastic when operating the camera equipment. However, there have been many times when the boys’ excitement has got the better of them – when they’ve ignored instruction and taped over an interview we needed for a video, when they’ve slyed away to a computer to listen to music while Mona and I are teaching a lesson, or when they’ve snuck into the camera bag and turned on the camera to play with it before we’ve started filming. All of this should be expected – they’re young boys all living together at school and we’re foreigners bringing in new technology most of them have never used before (they’re definitely not going to sit with hands folded) – so we don’t take the rowdy energy as a sign that we’re losing the boys or that they’re not interested in learning. Harnessing the boys’ energy for constructive work is the name of the game at Nalgonda.

At Vijayanagar Colony, the students are progressing with their news video on traffic and child labor. We have been able to get many interviews on their respective topics as well as shoot “news room” footage with student anchors reporting from a desk in our classroom in front of a drawing on the blackboard which acts as the logo for our “news team”. We are also shooting smaller stories to filter in between the two large topics of child labor and traffic. We will include a “sports update” on some cricket news and also an entertainment update detailing a movie that the kids will act out. These smaller stories are just a way to get the kids more involved, more comfortable with the idea of acting and give them a fuller understanding of what constitutes a news program. At Vijayanagar we’ve begun talking about the students third and final video project (to be filmed and completed after the students winter vacation), which we were thinking could be an oral history on an important event or aspect of Indian history. Once we said the word history, the kids were prompt with protest and vocal displeasure. It seems that all things history have a stigma for our ninth class students at Vijayanagar (and probably for most 9th class students everywhere). We asked the students to write about an important event in Indian history in their notebooks. Many students asked to consult their Social Studies textbooks and others drew the Indian flag, either to signify the 1947 Independence or because their nearby classmate had drawn a flag. We’re hoping to bring the kids around to this idea of oral history through more subtle assignments.

A common question thrown at Mona and I is “are you married”. In India, I find that I feel a little inadequate when I respond that I’m single. In the United States, I fit right in as a 23 year old bachelor. But here, it almost seems irresponsible to be that age and still be single. I was talking to an auto rickshaw driver and he explained that my age, 23, was “sufficient for marriage”. I felt obliged to give an explanation of why I hadn’t found the one yet. So many of the people are marrying in their early twenties here.A friend we met here, Kedar, was explaining to us that in just the past week he had attended 3 different marriages. It seems that many marriages are arranged here. While looking through a magazine “India Today,” Mona and I came across the brides / grooms wanted section. It looks just like the singles page in an American paper, where single people list their attributes and interests in hopes of finding someone to date. The difference here is that it’s not dating, it’s marriage. A door-to-door fundraiser, Chaitanya, who we met several weeks ago explained that a possible reason for all the marriages, for love or otherwise, is that once married the couples can have kids who will help with the economic burdens of daily life. Previously in our stand and declare exercise, students at Vijayanagar explained that one example of inequality for women in India is that they are made to provide a dowry when entering marriage. This can place a huge burden on the bride’s family. Also, it seems that people really knock themselves out for weddings here, probably dipping far into their financial reserves for a single day of symbolic importance. Despite all of this, the wedding celebrations here seem quite beautiful and very entertaining. A testament to this is that Mona and I have been attempting to get invited to one for some time through not so subtle statements to locals here like,”oh you were just at a wedding…I’d love to see a wedding here!” We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

Something that I have noticed in many of our students and in the people we meet outside the classroom is their pride. It manifests itself in many ways – the inability of an auto driver to admit he has no clue where your destination is; the inability of our students to admit that they don’t understand our very fast English; the hospitable friend who insists on paying for everyone and doing everything for you; and the principal at the school who is forever wary of the foreigners and their newfangled digital storytelling curriculum. Just as haggling is a way of life here, so too is stating your case and making very clear who you are and what your opinions are. The idea seems to be that if we’re all going to be living on top of each other, we might as well get to know our differences and enjoy our quirks and thoughts. One of our students at Nalgonda has been asking us about our vacation plans, as he lives near us in Abids and wants to meet up. He explains “I’ll show you around the city.” Many other students show similar curiosity and confidence, demanding our number and address. Some of them have commenced the text messages. Others frequently say, “we’ll party at your house?!” Though sometimes the specific plans can’t work out, it’s good to see how vocal and open the kids are. It never hurts to ask, and that’s certianly something our students understand.